The aim of the SolAqua project is to study and test the technical and financial feasibility of floating solar panels. This innovative project is led by Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno of the Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Malta, while the industrial partners are Pandia Energy Ltd. and General Membrane Ltd.. The EUR 200,000 project is a 3-year MCST (Malta Council for Science and Technology) funded research project that started in 2013.

In countries such as Malta, the scarcity of land makes it very difficult to find adequate parcels of land to build large solar farms. Moreover land prices in Malta are expensive. This makes the prospect of putting such solar farms at sea attractive. If the system is durable and able to withstand all kinds of weather and the cost of the system is comparable to what it would cost to build a system on land, it can make a floating solar farm viable. In addition to small densely populated islands, this situation also exists in big coastal cities, where it is also often difficult to find large parcels of land within the city, and building a solar farm far in the periphery adds substantial costs due to power transmission.

Moreover, putting photovoltaics on water might have some advantages. The reflection of the water surface and the cooling effect of the sea can increase the yield. A well designed system might also reduce some of the costs of equivalent land based systems by simplifying the mounting of the panels.

SolAqua is a three-phase project. In phase one, launched on 17 December 2014, the project will be testing a prototype consisting of rafts with flexible panels on top of them. This system was largely designed by one of the industrial partners (General Membrane) and makes use of their patented technology in the way the panels are attached to the raft. In phase 2 and 3 the project will be testing propriety designs proposed by the University of Malta. Some of these ideas are currently in the process of being patented and prototypes will be launched in 2015. While there are several floating photovoltaic systems currently around the world, the one just launched is possibly the first in open sea putting Malta at the forefront of this area of research.

The power generated from the sea-based systems will be compared to a similar system on land. Factors that are being studied include sea-worthiness, the effect of salt drying on the panels on their output, cooling and reflection effects and corrosion. Moreover the project is also performing extensive modelling on the best design and lowest cost for a floating system. Should the results prove promising, funding and partnerships to commercialize the idea will be sought.

This project is one of several research projects currently being undertaken by the Institute for Sustainable Energy which is also in the process of building a state of the Art Solar Research lab using ERDF funds. The Institute also holds an MSc Sustainable Energy evening course and training courses for PV and Solar Water heater installers.